The Hobbit

Poor Bilbo Baggins! An unassuming and rather plump hobbit (as most of these small, furry-footed people tend to be ), Baggins finds himself unwittingly drawn into adventure by a wizard named Gandalf and 13 dwarves bound for the Lonely Mountain, where a dragon named Smaug hordes a stolen treasure. Before he knows what is happening, Baggins finds himself on the road to danger. Wizards, dwarves and dragons may seem the stuff of children's fairy tales, but The Hobbit is in a class of its own--light-hearted enough for younger readers, yet with a dark edge guaranteed to intrigue an older audience. In the best tradition of the archetypal hero's quest, Bilbo Baggins sets out on his fateful journey a callow, untested soul and returns--tempered by hardship, danger and loss--a better man--er, hobbit.

This book is the predecessor to Tolkien's masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, and though that trilogy can be thoroughly enjoyed without first reading The Hobbit, much that happens in the later novels is foreshadowed here. A word of caution, however: as Bilbo discovers early on, travel and adventure are addictive things; embark on this journey to the Lonely Mountain with Tolkien's reluctant hero, and you might not be able to stop there. And the road taken to the distant mountains of Mordor in the ensuing trilogy is an even more perilous one.

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A good story for children and grown-ups, too - Rated
"The Hobbit" was published in 1937 for the first time, and it was because of it that "The Lord of the Rings" came into existence. It's funny and entertaining, and it shows Bilbo Baggins' most important adventure of his life in an appealing manner. One should clearly understand that this book was at first intended for Tolkien's own children, and only later was published. One should therefore not expect the powerful and often deadly serious narrative of "LotR". As a trivial example, Sauron is not named in "The Hobbit", but appears under the name "the Necromancer", and is of no importance other than keeping Gandalf away from the party of Dwarves for a while, thus allowing for more breath-taking adventures.

I recommend this book if you are parents of young children (Rayner Unwin, the first reviewer, was 10 when he approved for it and convinced his father to print it), since it is an easy reading, that can develop a taste for Tolkien and deeper novels, such as "LotR" or "The Silmarillion". Also, if you've read "LotR", give "The Hobbit" a try - it's not at all a bad story.

a nice suprise - Rated
I bought this book having loved the Lord of The Rings Trilogy films. I had attempted to read Tolkiens LOTR novel years ago, before the films , and found I couldnt get into it at all. Being a 43 year old male who loves action/adventure,crime/thrillers etc.. I bought this book with some trepidation but since I loved the films so much, I thought Id give it a go.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.Yes it is a childrens book, but like the Harry Potter series(which I also suprisingly enjoyed), I found it very entertaining and fairly timeless.I would recommend it to anyone.

Ridiculous - Rated

After writing LotR Tolkien should have hunted all of his Hobbit books and burnt them in a giant bonfire.
This book tells about the adventure of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and a number of Dwarves (I can't remember the actual number, because all the dwarves were so similar).

This book is so silly, juvenile and ridiculously written that it is completely unprecedented.

People are defending this book by saying that it's a childrens' book unlike LotR. Well here's some news for you. There are some actually good childrens' books out there.

Not all would doom this 1 star, but no way would this book be receiving so many 5 star reviews unless it was written by Tolkien.

I'm not saying someone couldn't like it, but from any sane point of view it just isn't *good*. Period.

Good outwits Evil - Rated
It's Dirty Work, but somebody has to do it - burglary, that is, and who better than a naive hobbit with an adventurous streak in him somewhere. Clever Gandalf tricks him into leaving his comfortable life in Hobbiton for an epic journey, involving hunger, thirst and peril in the Wild. En route he meets fantastic characters and stumbles across a ring which confers invisibility. Using his ring as a crutch, he rescues the Dwarves and masterminds the recovery of their treasure, testing his ingenuity to the utmost. Well, what would YOU do, if somebody dared you?
Incidentally, make sure you read the book with original Art Deco style pictures by Tolkien himself.

the prequel to LOTR... - Rated
Well, just finish the book. Very good flow for characters adventure. Meeting foes and frens along the way. The ending was good all so becoz Tolkien tend to write the way he does for LOTR; bringing the finale a good fight. You can see all foes and frens come togather and give it a last go. The part about the dragon seems to easy for passing the pages. I thought it was suppose to be the main mission, but then the story change towards something about treasure and sharing and eventually good friendship and respect taken for some of the Heroes. Great fun to read, esp the ring power was also involved and how can we stop here, lets go get LOTR and go down the valley.